How a Wrong or Bad Template / Theme Can Ruin your Blog Ranking and Traffic

Two weeks back we switched to a new blogger template which was a Responsive template.Responsive design is the new trend to make your web design compatible with all devices.But the results were not as we expected.The responsive design had a negative impact on our blog traffic and ranking as well.

On March 28th 2013 we decided to upgrade our template to a responsive design.The response for the design was good.I analysed the theme in all aspects whether it might be SEO,loading time and user experience and few other factors as well.But the results were different.

Till April 1st 2013 the traffic was normal.Bounce rates were decreased and time spent on the blog has increased which were good signs.

Traffic started sinking down: 

The ranking started sinking down from April 2nd 2013.I thought if it was either some Algorithmic update or some penalty has raised on my blog and I started finding out the fix for this issue.
Then I found that the responsive design has created duplicate content.Google started indexing both mobile version and desktop version url parameters which created duplicate content.

However I later came up with a solution to fix this duplicate content issue which I already discussed in detailed in an article on how to fix duplicate content issue in blogger.

Still the ranking went on dropping down:

I was expecting an increase in ranking and traffic in the next couple of days but the results were biased.Traffic went on decreasing which you can see from the below screenshot.
At that stage I was really very frustrated and thought of even selling the blog before the traffic completely goes down.

Decided to Revert Back to Old Theme:

Finally I decided to check if its the template which triggered the decline in ranking and reverted back to my old template.I had a proper backup of the old template.So it was very easy for me to revert back without much effort.

Results after Reverting back to Old Template:

Within the next 4 hours after I reverted back to old template the lost ranking started coming back to normal.After 24 hours all the keywords were back to their normal position and traffic back to normal.
Those two weeks of traffic downfall were horrible as I have only one active blog this time .So a traffic down fall will lead to decline in earnings as well.

Some Common Questions:

Does Template/Theme Effect Blog Ranking?

Yes it does.

There are many factors that helps in better ranking of a blog in search engines like better indexing ,good page rank distribution with in the blog,Optimized Title and Header Tags etc.

 I will be discussing more about how to choose an optimized theme in a separate article.

How to Choose a Proper Template/Theme Design for your blog?

• Only use themes or templates which are designed by trusted or popular designers.
• Keep it simple and neat.
• Avoid too many javascripts. Javascripts not only effects the loading time but also effects the indexing of your blog in Google.
• Take a basic theme and start customizing it:- If you have basic idea of css and html instead of going for ready made themes start with a basic theme and customize it to your need.Basic templates which are available in Blogger Dashboard are SEO optimized by default.

Will we upgrade to a new Template in future?

The answer is No.

We already took all the risk on our sholders and tested many templates and found out that the template which we are using currently is the best and SEO Optimized template.I worked on this template for almost an year optimizing it for search engines and users.So I feel that this template is the best template so far.This template is designed by modifying devils workshop blogger template which is readily available to download.If you need the current template then you have to contact me.I agree the fact that the current template is little heavy and takes couple of more seconds to load.We are constantly working on to reduce the loading time.

Conclusion: 

Its very clear that a Template or Theme can impact huge on your blog.I suggest you to try few different templates and test each of the performace for a week or two on your blog.You will definitely notice a fluctuation in rankings.Use the one which improves your ranking and traffic and customize it to your need.

If you need any suggestions regarding template selection or template designing you can always contact me,I can design a good SEO optimized theme for your blog.